ECOWAS speaker calls for adequate women representation amongst members states
By Punarimam Fehintola
The Speaker of ECOWAS Paliament, Hon. Moustapha Cisse-Lo has urged all ECOWAS member States to ensure 30 percent representation of women in the ECOWAS Paliament.
He made this statement during a courtesy visit on the President of Burkina Faso and also the Speaker of Burkina Faso National Assembly on Wednesday in Ouagadougou.
According to him, 30 percent women representation in the Parliament is one of the major objective he hope to achieve before the end of his tenure in 2020.
Cisse-Lo, said that presently ECOWAS have not achieved that because member States mostly select men for the Parliament.
“This meeting is a friendly one because we have to discuss about single currency which will be good for the ECOWAS Population.
“ There is also the gender issues, out of 100, we must have 30 percent of women in each delegation, so all ECOWAS member States should ensure that its achieved.
“My tenure ends in 2020 and new members of parliament will be selected, we discussed on how to ensure continuity on the projects we have done.
“We also ask the Burkina Faso Head of State to be our voice in forum of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government.
“We also talked about the 4thlegislature and the coming 5th legislature, we expects the incoming MPs to continue our work and even do better than us.”
Meanwhile, Mr Eyitayo Mesaiyete in his representation on “Phenomenon of Corruption in Politics and it’s Impact on Governance” said that ECOWAS Protocol on the fight against corruption though complete, is not being implemented to the letter.
He said that protocol on the fight against corruption should be continually monitored and evaluated.
“The prosecution of a persons indicted for political corruption must be unbiased and cut across board, the trend in Nigeria over the years is the prosecution of members of the political opposition.
“Whilst indicted members of the ruling political party enjoy a measure of immunity as long as the party remains in power.”
He however, said that ECOWAS Protocol on the fight against corruption should be reviewed to include emphasis on increased transparency in governance.
